SEF PARSER AND EDI PARSER GENERATOR

• US 20080307384A1
• Filed: 08/20/2008
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Perham, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,159,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/06 Notations for structuring of protocol data, e.g. abstract syntax notation one [ASN.1]

Abstract

A SEF grammar is created to be used with the Java CC program to autogenerate a SEF parser. The SEF parser can be run with specially written X12 code on any SEF file to automatically create an EDI object model for that SEF file. A programmer can then write application code to use the EDI object model to parse an EDI document that the SEF file describes and generate in memory an EDI object model instance for that EDI document. The application code is also used to employ the EDI object model instance to efficiently process the EDI document'"'"'s EDI transaction. In addition, the application code is used to employ the EDI object model on the EDI object model instance to emit an EDI document for further use.

Claims

1. A computer program product for automating the processing of business transaction data for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to implement a Standard Exchange Format (SEF) parser that interprets the format of a corresponding SEF file, wherein the SEF file includes information relating to EDI transaction elements associated with a corresponding EDI document; and

computer usable program code configured to implement an EDI object model for the SEF file that is generated by parsing at least the SEF file using the SEF parser such that the EDI object model includes code that represents the data structures of the corresponding SEF file;

wherein the EDI object model is configured to be utilized by a programmer to create application code to process business transaction data for EDI documents by generating a specific EDI object model instance of the EDI object model and wherein the EDI object model instance is configured to be utilized to process the business transaction data.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the SEF parser is configured to be used to create X12 code to represent various X12 objects within the SEF file.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 wherein the EDI object model further comprises a specific SEF file and the EDI object model is capable of being autogenerated by running the SEF parser and the X12 code on the SEF file.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the SEF parser comprises a SEF grammar and JavaCC, and wherein the SEF grammar and the JavaCC are capable of being used to autogenerate the SEF parser.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the EDI object model is configured to be utilized by the SEF parser to break up the EDI document into a set of structures which represent business objects in the transaction in a readable manner.

6. A computer program product for automating the processing of business transaction data for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to implement a Standard Exchange Format (SEF) parser that interprets the format of a corresponding SEF file, wherein the SEF file includes information relating to EDI transaction elements associated with a first corresponding EDI document and a second corresponding EDI document; and

computer usable program code configured to implement an EDI object model for the SEF file that is generated by parsing at least the SEF file using the SEF parser such that the EDI object model includes code that represents the data structures of the corresponding SEF file; and

wherein the EDI object model for the SEF file is configured to be utilized by a programmer to process business transaction data for the first EDI document and to process the business transaction data for the second EDI document.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein:

the EDI object model is configured to be utilized by the programmer to create a first application code to process the business transaction data for the first EDI document by generating a first EDI object model instance of the EDI object model; and

the first EDI object model instance is configured to be utilized to process the business transaction data for the first EDI document.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the first application code is configured to be utilized to modify an EDI object model instance.

9. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the first application code is configured to be utilized to emit the object model instance to the first EDI document.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the first application code is configured to be utilized to parse the first EDI document.

11. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the SEF parser is configured to be utilized to create X12 code to represent various X12 objects within the SEF file.

12. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein:

the EDI object model is configured to be utilized by the programmer to create a second application code to process the business transaction data for the second EDI document by generating a second EDI object model instance of the EDI object model; and

the second EDI object model instance is configured to be utilized to process the business transaction data for the second EDI document.

13. A computer program product for using an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) object model for processing business transaction data comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising;

computer usable program code configured to implement an EDI object model for a Standard Exchange Format (SEF) file associated with at least one EDI document, the SEF file including information relating to EDI transaction elements associated with an EDI document, wherein the EDI object model is created by parsing at least the SEF file using a SEF parser such that the EDI object model includes code that represents the data structures of the corresponding SEF file; and

computer usable program code configured to implement application code to process the business transaction data for the EDI document;

wherein the application code and the EDI object model are configured to be utilized to generate an EDI object model instance for the SEF file, and wherein the business transaction data is capable of being processed for the EDI document with the EDI object model instance.